Payments for imaging services are also affected by revisions to payments for practice expense. CMS is implementing a new methodology for determining resource-based practice expense payments for all services. The effects of this new methodology for the practice expense of both the professional component and technical component vary and are currently being reviewed by the ACR Commission on Economics and staff.

Medicare will implement its proposal to cut all physician work values by 10 percent as a budget neutral adjustment of the third five-year review process. This equates to a 5 percent cut across the board in professional component reimbursement. The majority of this adjustment is attributed to the large increase in physician work value for the evaluation and management codes which alone required that $4 billion be shifted from all other procedures in order to pay for the newly priced evaluation and management codes.


The ACR is currently analyzing the 2007 rule and its impacts and will provide the membership with further detail as it becomes available.

To read the 2007 rule, go to http://www.cms.hhs.gov/PhysicianFeeSched/

To view the Imaging Services Fact Sheet on the CMS Web site, go to
http://www.cms.hhs.gov/apps/media/press/release.asp?Counter=2046

**
Nov. 1, 1006

AMA: CMS Medicare Payment Rule Reminder of Need for Congressional Action

Stop 2007 Medicare physician payment cut to preserve seniors' access to care.

Statement attributable to:
Cecil B. Wilson, MD
AMA Board Chair

"Today's release of the Medicare physician payment rule serves as a harsh reminder of the need for congressional action to stop next year's Medicare physician payment cut due to the flawed payment formula. For the last five years, Medicare physician payments have failed to reflect the government's own measure of annual increases in medical practice costs, with current payments about what they were in 2001. For nearly half of physicians, the 2007 Medicare payment cuts will range from 6 to 20 percent because of additional payment policy changes.*

"We agree that the increases in payments for physician office visits are important, but the overall physician payment cut due to the flawed payment formula will negate any overall payment increase for primary care physicians. The rule indicates that family physicians will have an average net payment change of zero and internists face a net cut of one percent."

"Physicians are left with choices they do not want to make: Nearly half of physicians tell the AMA they will be forced to reduce the number of new Medicare patients they treat. And because TRICARE rates are tied to Medicare payment rates, military families will also be affected by the cuts with reduced access to care. The cuts are also forcing physicians to make other hard decisions like reducing staff and postponing investments in health information technology and new medical equipment.

More Industry Headlines